Oil benchmarks were still down for the day, but they were able to recover some of their losses during the morning London session. This apparently also caused risk sentiment to improve, so the higher-yielding comdolls were able to slap the safe-havens lower.

Major Events/Reports:

U.K. jobs report – The United Kingdom’s jobs report for the three months to February failed to impress since the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits increase by 6.7K instead of decreasing by 10.0K. Furthermore average earnings only grew by 1.8%, which is lower than the expected 2.1% growth. The poor jobs report didn’t have as much of an impact on pound pairs, though, since pound pairs had a mixed performance during the session.

Oil off its lows – Oil started the morning London session deep in the red, thanks to renewed oversupply worries after the oil workers’ strike in Kuwait finally ended. However, oil benchmarks steadily clawed their way higher during the course of the morning London session, but market analysts can’t pinpoint the reason for the rise just yet (or if the rise is sustainable).

U.S. crude oil was still down by 1.55% to $41.81 per barrel for the day, but it’s off its lows around $41.30. Brent blend crude, meanwhile, was still down by 1.36% to $43.43 per barrel for the day after going as low as $42.82 earlier.

Mostly risk-on session – European equity indices were apparently tracking oil’s price action, so they opened in the red at the start before steadily climbing higher, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 now up by 0.09% to 1,376.35. The DAX was also now up by 0.16% to 10,366.00 while the Euro Stoxx 50 was up by 0.53% to 3,127.50.

U.S. equity futures were now also now in positive territory, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.06% to 2,095.00 and the Nasdaq futures up by 0.08% to 4,530.50. As for the safe-haven gold, it was kicked 0.32% lower to $1,250.30 per troy ounce during the course of the morning London session.

Major Currency Movers:

AUD & CAD – The higher-yielding comdolls (AUD, CAD, NZD) battled for supremacy during the morning London session, but demand for the Kiwi fizzled out about halfway through the session, so the Aussie and the Loonie were the only ones left to duke it out, with the Aussie ultimately edging out the Loonie near the end even though the risk-on sentiment was apparently being fueled by the recovery in oil prices.

AUD/USD was up by 31 pips (+0.39%) to 0.7817, AUD/JPY was up by 54 pips (+0.63%) to 85.35, AUD/CHF was up by 27 pips (+0.37%) to 0.7514

USD/CAD was down by 43 pips (-0.34%) to 1.2664, EUR/CAD was down by 29 pips (-0.20%) to 1.4408, GBP/CAD was down by 48 pips (-0.27%) to 1.8210

JPY – The safe-haven currencies (USD, JPY, CHF) were getting burned by the prevailing risk-on sentiment, but the Japanese yen was hands down the weakest currency during the session.

USD/JPY was up by 27 pips (+0.25%) to 109.18, CHF/JPY was up by 32 pips (+0.28%) to 113.59, GBP/JPY was up by 53 pips (+0.34%) to 157.01